I have had buzzing sensations, bug crawling sensations, feelings like someone injected ice water into my veins for 6 years now, I get these feelings on my face, arms, back, and legs, and sometimes on my scalp. I have had a normal brain MRI and c-spine MRI, bloodwork included, CBC, Lyme, thyroid, cholesterol, and everything is normal, but not me.

I started taking Prozac about 4 years ago, the first 2 weeks was horrible. I had muscle twitches, cold flushes, dizziness, and drowsiness, but after 3 weeks or so, I started to get some energy back, but the weird feelings have still been there. Well, I started taking the Prozac again about 3 weeks ago, this time I get these real cold sensations on my face, and legs, they only last for a few seconds and they are gone.

My doc says that sometimes your anxiety is worst during the first few weeks of taking the meds, so, my question is, Does this sound like anxiety? These feelings that I get with the Prozac are the same feelings that I got before the Prozac, just worse. I am scared to death that I have something terrible like MS, Parkinsons, or god for bid, ALS. I just can't stand it anymore.

Tommorow I got for a lumbar/sacral MRI to see if I have something wrong with my lower back, being I get these sensations in my legs also.

I doubt they will find anything, because these same sensations are also on my face and arms and back, and the brain and cervical MRI came out ok there.

Can anyone help me, is this common with Prozac? Do you think this is anxiety? Or does it sound like MS? I am ready to just be admitted to the hospital, until they find out what is wrong with me. Thanks!!!

Welcome to Healing Well, in case you haven't been welcomed already !! :) I'm sure you have but I haven't seen your posts yet.

Well.. if your symptoms of your anxiety have intensified (worsened) since being on the Prozac, why not switch to another SSRI because it doesn't sound like it's working at all for you.

I had the same reaction to Zoloft, where all my symptoms worsened when I took the drug so I just stopped taking it, despite the doctor telling me not to, but nothing was getting better. I took Zoloft for a month, and two of my sisters that took Zoloft had the exact same reaction.

I'm now on Lexapro (20 mgs a day) and there are plenty of other great SSRI's out there.

The cold chills in my face and legs happen often for me, as well as the muscle twitches, dizziness, and drowsiness, but those symptoms lessened AFTER I got on meds. Key word here is "lessened", the symptoms didn't get worse, they got better.

So I'm seriously thinking perhaps you should talk to your doc about this, and maybe see about switching to a different anti-depressant.

We're all scared of having an awful disease, I'm always researching as to whether I have this or that or whatever. But ... our mind is just playing tricks on us by giving us all these physical symptoms of our disorder... which makes us think we're dieing or have a terminal illness, etc.

I also noticed you only started taking the Prozac 3 weeks ago, how long were you off Prozac? If these symptoms stay for longer than 6 weeks, I suggest you talk to your doctor about other options.

My other question is, why did you get off Prozac the first time... did the symptoms not go away?

It sounds like typicaly anxiety to me, as I experience all the same things...

except I experience even MORE symptoms because of my Panic Disorder... like jelly legs and tingling in my feet and hands... and a shaky feeling on the inside... like I'm literally shaking but not on the outside.

Weird eh?

I hope this helps.

And by the way, you're not losing your mind. :)

Twiggygal~

"Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars."

Hi jenny, and welcome to our lil family (which is growing so wonderfully!!!) I would ask your doc, and tell him this isnt working for you, i agree with twiggy again ;) there are many diff meds out there, and one of them has to help you more than that. I couldnt take any of the ssri's, i tried 4 diff ones, but they didnt work well. I do take klonopin and a beta blocker that keeps my heart from beating out of my chest, but it works. I wish you the best of luck in finding something that works better. Keep posting and keep ya head up. hugs, shell" Dwell not on the past. Use it to illustrate a point, then leave it behind. Nothing really matters except what you do now, in this instant of time. From this moment onward you can be an entirely different person, filled with love and understanding, ready with an outstretched hand, uplifted and positive in every thought and deed."Eileen Caddy

also try jacuzzi and bubble baths, spas and full body massage for relaxation

I dont know what the cause is but the above wont do any harm if it turns out to be not anxiety

long walks are very relaxingrecovered former longtime anxiety and panic attack sufferer and helper of other sufferers but no training or qualifications in medicine or psychology, any remarks that may be taken as advice must be confirmed with doctor or other health professional

Thank you all so much, its so hard for me to understand how anxiety can cause these sensations. I am going today for a lumbar MRI because of the feelings in my legs. Mooney, where do you get the cold sensations?

I get them everywhere. Why doesn't meds take them away if its just "anxiety"? So far I've had the brain MRI, c-spine, and now today I am going for the lumbar, I hope everything turns out ok. Maybe I have Lyme disease, thats my next route, unless the meds start working better, which I don't see that happening, all I feel like doing is slepping, so disgusting!!!

Thanks for the replys, I just needed to know if this is normal with anxiety????

Welcome to HW I see your already making new friends and are getting great support. I Hope you are feeling better. Please keep posting so we know how you are doing.

(((HUGS)))

MsKittie

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I have an illness, My illness don't have me.

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Being happy doesnt mean everything's perfect.It means you've decided to see beyound the imperfrctions!God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, but HE did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears & light for the way.

I don't know all of you yet, but I am hoping I can help in some way. I have suffered from Panic attacks in the past and I now live an anxious free life thank God. I want to let you all know that you all absolutely can overcome this as I have. I really know how horrible it is.

Can I ask you all something and it would be good to get some responses just for my own interest. I found that when I became anxious that I was actually getting something from being this way. I was getting love from my girlfriend, I was being made to feel important in some way because I was ill. I used to put on illness sometimes so that I could be acknowledged because by people, I could get love from them, I was significant because I had this illness. In a funny kind of way it felt like I was important.

Then after reading many books and listening to audio programmes, I found out why I did it. It was a way to make me feel loved by people because I didn't know of any other way. Then I asked my self what other ways could I feel connected to the people I loved and feel like I was significant in some way. So I joined a gym and took up Kickboxing, I started singing and I send my girlfriend loving text messages everyday and I told people I worked with how much I appreciated them.

The weird thing was that it took my thoughts off me, off my problems and it focused them on making other people feel better in a way that made them feel great and empowered afterwards. It's like what is you reaction when someone is sick. Naturally it is to feel sorry for them in some way. Well guess what you make them feel loved by doing that. So next time someone complains about feeling ill say something like. Ah, you'll get better in a day or so, how can I help to make you feel better, what can I do to make you feel better to speed up you recovery.

So heres a question and don't feel you have to answer, I am just interested and maybe you are too..... Just because these insights helped me get over my problem and I am hoping they will yours to because I want everyone to feel free again. It's a wonderful feeling.

What do you get from being sick, ill, anxious?How do people care more for you when you are ill?How could you focus on feeling better, today?

I used to get the sensations throughout my whole body. Mine felt like i was freezing inside but burning (like stinging on the outside). I dread them. they are my worst symptom. The place where i get it the most is the back of my neck and back and arms. I woke up one morning at 5 (when it was still dark outside) because i couldn't tell if i was hot or cold and walked around barefoot in the cold trying to figure it out.

I don't think there is anyone here that wouldn't rather be doing something else. No one wants to feel sick or feel emotionally or physically weak. I personally think Panic Disorder (i'm bolding this because i think there is a big difference between Panic Disorder and General Anxiety) is much more than just a mental illness. I believe it is mostly caused by stress, but something changes in the body or brain's chemistry. I think there will be a real answer for exactly what in the body/brain goes wrong and hopefully someone will find a cure for this someday. BTW, this disorder mimics MS, Lyme Disease, Diabetes, and some heart conditions. It's painful, and unfortunately, a positive attitude does not make it go away.

I'm happy to hear you have found a way to make yourself better apparently your's wasn't a chemical imbalance. I have always been a strong minded person and I do struggle with my illness everyday but I know it's not something I have invented to get attention from my friends and family. I have other illnesses that have put me in this state of mind. You can only live with pain for so long before it starts affecting you mentally and amotionally. I would really be interested in hearing your reply to this so please keep posting.(((HUGS)))

MsKittie

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I have an illness, My illness don't have me.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Being happy doesnt mean everything's perfect.It means you've decided to see beyound the imperfrctions!God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, but HE did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears & light for the way.

I am sorry that you have had to suffer so much with this. I don't have the same symptoms that you have, but I do get a lot of strange sensations, mainly dizziness and heart palps. The trouble with anxiety is that it can present in different ways with different people, and it does mimic other diseases. It's good that they have tested you to rule out other more serious problems. I hope your latest test turns out to be ok as well. As for starting on antidepressants, I seem to have annoying symptoms with most of them, especially in the beginning. Luckily, once I got on Lexapro, I had minimal side effects from that one. You didn't mention if you are seeing a therapist, but I have found that helps me a lot.

Mooney, mine cold sensations feel like someone injected ice water into my veins. This morning, although they have happened before, I woke up with a vibrating feeling in my chest, feel like a motor running, it lasted for about a minute or so, this has been happening alot. I haven't been to a neurologist for about 5 years, my pcp is the one that was running the tests that I have had. I am going to make an appointment today to go to see one, maybe she can help more. I can't imagine that anxiety can do these thype of things. The xanax used to help settle stuff down some, but now that I am taking the Prozac, the xanax has no effect on them. The worst is the fatique, thats the reason I started the Prozac again, but its been 3 weeks and the fatique is still there. Thanks alot, and also to everyone else that has responded, have a nice day!!!!

Thanks Bear for your input It helps to stay on subject in a thread or we ( I know I do ) get lost lolJenny I hope all works out for you and you find what is going on I think Anxiety causes way more to our bodies than we know .........Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers lynContribute today to support Healing Well Forums...Donate @

don't underestimate what Panic Disorder can do. I think lots of us have had bizarre sensations that are not easy to describe (that you can't find in a typical anxiety symptom list). I've seen my pinky finger go crazy (on it's own), my stomach swell up on one side, my left foot fall asleep for days, etc. etc. Stress even caused my white blood count to rise (neutrophils high), a low grade fever and then i developed severe reflux and now food allergies to almost everything.

I've also seen after-images and trails in my vision, which was really very distressing for me. I've been to neurologists and have had scans.

I can't find lots of my symptoms in the books, but i know i was perfectly healthy before my first panic attack 13 years ago.

As far as the ice water feeling that you're experiencing, i've heard of that with PD. Mine is hard to describe, but i find most of my sensations difficult to describe.

Mooney, I am not having a panic attack when these sensations happen though. I haven't had a anxiety attack in 6 years. These sensations are there all the time, even when I don't feel anxious at all. Does your symptoms only occur while your having an attack? Thank U!!!!

I don't know if your symptoms are caused by something else or not and I don't like to say everything is caused by PD but I, like you, rarely get attacks, but the sensations are still there.

I read that with Panic Disorder you can get "free floating" anxiety that never leaves. It just causes nasty symptoms day in and day out, like a cloud of it hanging over you. I went for years w/my symptoms and most of them seemed neurological. I was certain i had MS. I guess I still could (my grandmother had it) but for some reason the sensations are not as strong now.

Mooney, my gram had MS also, maternal grandmother. How long have you had these symptoms, if you don't mind me asking? My problems all started with an anxiety attack that left me with 3 months of nausea, and weight loss, I googled nausea, and MS came up, it was only about 3 weeks later that these feelings started, and I started paying very close attention to ever little thing with my body, and BOOM, here I am still having weird feelings, 6 years later. Talk again!!

It was my maternal grandmother that was diagnosed with it. I'm not convinced that was it though, because it never really progressed. She ended up dying at 56 years old from cancer of unknown origin. My aunt tells me that her first symptoms was her vision was rapidly getting worse.

Im looking at my med records (i requested a copy) and it looks like I thought I had it for a few years...from 1996-1998. One report reads "intermittent visual change, question demyelinating disease. Numbness and tingling in foot". Another reads "numbness of feet, hands and face. She felt a vibration in her left thigh. She is sensitive to noise and light".

I also had sensations I couldn't describe, plus extreme exhaustion and low grade fevers.

They found "vague white matter high signal" on my brain MRI. To them it means nothing. Later, found an enlarged lymph node in groin that is still there (I think it's lymphoma). Documented low grade fevers for a few years and terrible nausea like a hangover everyday. Slightly enlarged pituitary gland. I had no saliva or tears so they thought i had Sjogrens. They tested for HIV, Lyme, Leptospirosis (sp?) and rocky mounted spotted fever.

These things finally went away. Now my symptoms have changed. they are replaced by severe shortness of breath, food allergies, severe reflux, trouble swallowing. Also, for about 3 days in the last month, I've had muscle twitches throughout my body. Hmmmm.....ALS or MS? Probably not. Most likely PD.

I was told that if i'm having symptoms and my MRI was clear, it isn't MS. Hopefully that is true. They said they would've seen evidence of it.

Oh, forgot to mention that I developed a "benign" heart murmur (how does this happen?) and had elevated white blood counts for a few years. Now I have low iron stores.

Mooney, who said that if it didn't show on MRI it wasn't MS? a doc or neuro? What is your age? I'm 35, it says sensitivity to light and noise, do you suffer from migraines? I also have migraines. So you have had numbness then? I have never experienced numbness, yet, and I pray that I never do. So do you think that after 6 years, if I had MS, it would show on an MRI? Thanks, talk soon!!

i'm 33 years old and female. I don't remember which doc told me that but it stuck for some reason. I'm guessing it was probably my primary care doc. Even though i had (in my mind) lots of MS symptoms, my docs always said that it doesn't usually present that way. I also don't get migraines, but a doc suggested "painless migraines" which i wasn't convinced of.

I imagine there are lots of ways that MS could present itself, but i've read a lot about it and noticed vision changes like going partially blind in an eye or seeing a black spot (called a scatoma, which i have a small one in very bright light) and going numb on one side of your whole body upon wakening, dragging a foot, etc. are ways that i've read can mean MS. Also, many with MS cannot tolerate heat at all and they have lots of symptoms and need to stay cool.

Have you seen a copy of your blood work? Have you been tested for food allergies or sleep apnea? I know these things sound minor, but if you get a copy of your tests and look them over, sometimes docs tell you things are fine but then when you look at the results, there are slight abnormalities.

Unfortunately, we are slightly at higher risk for getting MS cause of or grams, but I would bet you don't have it and it's more likely that you just have the regular PD. When I was first diagnosed, i lost 10 pounds (went from 105 to 95) and couldn't eat or sleep. I think i wasn't breathing enough in my sleep, when i did sleep. I have a feeling Panic Disorder messes with your metabolism and/or your CNS because of that reason. (JMO)

Mooney, thanks for the help and encouragement. I was awaken again last night with the cold feeling in my left cheek (face), it only lasted for 30 seconds, but it kinda feels burny too, but cold, weird. I think that is from the Prozac, because I never had that before the Prozac, but I did get those feelings in my legs before the Prozac. Oh well, still waiting for the doc to call about my lumbar MRI, maybe there is something wrong there, to cause these feelings in my legs, but I doubt it, cause I get the same feelings everywhere else. Talk again soon, take care!!!!

I'm sorry you are still having so many problems and so much worry. I agree that you are probably having side effects from the Prozac. Although antidepressants are truly a life saver for many of us, they do come with a lot of side effects, some that go away and some that don't. When we finally decided to stick with my Lexapro, I was having side effects, which I decided to just live with, because it seemed that I had less problems with this med than the others I had tried. If you have a tendency to have "restless leg syndrome", no doubt antidepressants will increase that. I still have twitches in my legs, but nowhere near as severe as I did with Zoloft. It has been almost 2 years that I have been on the Lexapro, and I just decided to live with it rather than be severely depressed. I don't think you mentioned why the doc prescribed the Prozac, or maybe I just can't find that part. Was it for depression? If it was for anxiety, I know that some SSRI's are considered better for anxiety than others, but I don't know whether Prozac is one of the ones commonly used to treat anxiety. I would definitely talk with your doc about a possible change in meds due to the problems you are having. Just because one med is causing this side effect, it doesn't mean that another one will. I'm sending my thoughts and prayers your way, and please know that there is a lot of support here for you!

Well, last night was the third night this week that I had the cold, weird sensation in my face. Could it be the Prozac? It only lasts for about 30 seconds and its gone. It always happens right before I got to sleep , or when I wake up to roll over, its so weird. How can you stop worrying about worse things than anxiety when you have these weird sensations all the time? I am weaning myself off the Prozac, I don't think its going to work this time. How long do you have to be off a AD before starting another? I think I'm going to try Lexapro. I need help, is this truly anxiety? Anyone else have this cold feeling? Thanks!!!